Why are football stadiums so expensive in Canada?

Question

UB built UB stadium in 1993 for 23M. At the time it was 16.5K capacity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_at_Buffalo_Stadium

SMU paid 42 Million to build Gerald J. Ford stadium in 1999. It seats 32K.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_J._Ford_Stadium

The University of Idaho was quoted $30M for a 30K stadium in the last 10 years. SIU is paying $25.3 M for a 15K stadium. Fargodome (capacity 19k) was built in 1992 for 48M. Tenn-chatt built a 22K stadium for 28.5M in 1997.

You can certainly find expensive stadiums. The Florida sunbelt schools are notorious for lavish spending. FAU, which is pretty grandiose in it's plans ---their 30K stadium is running 62M. FIU spent 54M in 1995 to build a 23K stadium...but those are not the norm.

Moncton is paying 27M today to build a stadium with what appears to be 5K backed seats, another 5K in premanently attached bleachers, and 10K more in temporary bleachers.

What is it with the Stadium costs in Canada?

Answer 1

Are you confused by the US to Canadian dollar conversions? Before around this year, the Canadian Dollar was worth less than the US Dollar making the costs of things seem higher.

Answer 2

Actually, building costs all over the US and Canada are skyrocketing with the cost of fuel affecting all materials, transportation, machinery, and labour.  You can't even compare 2 identical stadia in the same city, one completed last year, and one breaking ground today.  The same problem is hitting major buildings of all types, bridges, highway construction, etc. and many large projects are going millions of dollars over budget because there was no way to factor in the increases that have been experienced.  Just look at your own spending on gasoline.  2 years ago could you possible have budgeted for today's prices?